Event Details

Incentivizing Cities’ Climate Action: The WWF One Planet City Challenge Global Awards Ceremony
WWF proposes to hold the 2018 One Planet City Challenge Awards ceremony at the California Action Summit. The

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Event Details

WWF proposes to hold the 2018 One Planet City Challenge Awards ceremony at the California Action Summit. The ceremony will reward and reinforce local leadership while also highlighting success stories and solutions from cities of various sizes from across the world. The Awards Ceremony will take place on the 12th of September between 11.30AM – 1 PM (12-13) at a restaurant near the City Hall The Jardinière.

One Planet City Challenge Background

Launched in 2011, WWF’s One Planet City Challenge (OPCC) highlights the crucial role cities play in the transition toward a low-carbon and sustainable future. The OPCC, one of the initiatives endorsed in the Bonn-Fiji Commitment of Local and Regional Leaders, is a biennial and global challenge that recognizes and helps to incentivize cities for developing low-carbon solutions to power the global transition towards a climate-resilient future. It gathers both small and large cities from across the world, including diverse cities like Bogor, Tshwane, Santa Monica, Istanbul, Rajkot, Guadalajara and Vancouver. To date over 400 cities across five continents have joined the OPCC, heeding the call to transition towards more sustainable city planning and energy systems, consumption patterns, resource use and waste management. The OPCC has helped to incentivize cities’ climate ambitions as well as increase the overall number of cities disclosing their climate data as part of the Global Covenant of Mayors. Aligning with WWF’s motto, “Together Possible”, the OPCC has worked in close partnership with ICLEI and an international jury of experts, representing key players on the urban climate action arena, from city expert organizations (eg C40, ICLEI and UN Habitat), and finance actors (eg WBG, ADB, IADB), to private sector networks (WEF), and academia.

The Award Ceremony

From 132 registered contenders in this cycle, the 2018 OPCC Global Awards Ceremony will laud circa 20 national winners and, from these, the OPCC global winner. The ceremony will also include a special mention for reinforcing local democracy through citizen empowerment.

The Awards Ceremony will take place on the 12th between 11.30AM – 1 PM (12-13) at a restaurant near the City Hall The Jardinière. It has therefore been moved from the earlier proposed and approved mingle/cocktail reception at City Hall on the evening of the 12th of September, on C40’s recommendation.

The main audience will include the cities present at the summit, including our winning cities, selected members of the OPCC jury, invited media and partner organizations.

We anticipate the total time to be about 90 minutes. Potentially, WWF and partners will also use this opportunity to make a joint announcement, regarding the OPCC’s updated evaluation framework, which is inspired by C40’s Deadline 2020 program and will help extend support to any type of city to develop action plans compatible with the Paris Agreement objectives. Thereby the event highlights the challenges ahead, but also the momentum of cities and city partners to work together to address climate change.